Not Post Racial Yet!

For those who think the election of Barack Obama means we’ve entered a post racial society, please think again.
If post-racial means that we are a society in which race doesn’t matter, that’s not true. Or if one defines a post racial society as one in which people are color blind, that isn’t true, either, and if a post racial society is one in which money and power is not tied to one’s race, that certainly isn’t true.
And if post-racial means we have finally moved to a time where white police officers do not react out of fear or bigotry when they see black men, we certainly are not there.
All of us remember the Professor Skip Gates case which ended up with Gates, the president and the white officer having beer together, in a kind of “can’t we just all get along?” type of gathering. And, some remember the story of the young African American man who was shot in the driveway of his own home in Houston, Texas by white police officers who thought he might have been a thief because he drove a nice car.
But this week, I read a story about a young high school honor student, 18 years old, who was assaulted and beaten by white police officers in Pittsburgh, Pa., who thought he was a drug dealer. This young man was walking from his mother’s house to his grandmother’s house.
Plainclothes police officers saw him walking, followed him for a bit, and then rushed their car up to him, jumped out, told him to give them his gun and his drugs.
He had neither.
In fact, according to the young man, these would-be assailants did not identify themselves as police officers and so frightened him that he began to run.
He said he thought he was about to be kidnapped.
And so he turned to run from them, and according to reports, fell after running only three steps. As he lay on the ground, they allegedly beat him pummeling his face and pulling out a chunk his dread locks out by the roots.
Wow.
He was arrested and taken into custody where police found that the “bulky object” they thought he had under his jacket was a bottle of Mountain Dew.
The report didn’t say that the bottle was broken, which it would have been since there was such a scuffle …but the young man said he didn’t have said bottle.
He doesn’t drink Mountain Dew.
So, the charges have been dropped, the mayor of Pittsburgh has made a statement, and the incident will be investigated.
Usual procedure.
The young man, whose face was terribly swollen from blows delivered during the assault, is recovering now. He has cut his dread locks. His right eye still looks pretty bad. He had to spend some time in the hospital.
I expect that the police officers will be found not to have been at fault.
Again, usual procedure.
Police brutality is still a major problem, with white officers wailing on black youth. Too often, it’s because some aberrant behavior is suspected. Ironically, the aberrant behavior in these cases are on the part of police officers who act and react out of fear of and maybe intense dislike for, young black men.
This young man had never been in trouble. He plays the viola and attends a prestigious high school for the arts.
Doesn’t matter, though, when power, fueled by fear and racial hatred, is unleashed on the streets from those who are supposed to protect all citizens.
No, we’ve got a ways to go before we can say we are post-racial, President Barack Obama notwithstanding.
Food for thought …

Pastor Smith